De Blasio: Council Does Campaign Finance Best

So it seems like for whatever reason (Concern over process? Personal inconvenience? Wonderment at the irony of a self-funded billionaire attempting to regulate campaign finance?), one the most controversial proposals from the mayor’s State of the City speech among other city officials was his proposal to ban political contributions from people who do business with the city.

After the mayor’s state of city speech, I caught up with Bill de Blasio, who, like Bill Thompson, had some reservations about the mayor’s idea.

“I don’t think it was wise or necessary for the mayor to suggest that he would go around the City Council, the legislative branch,” de Blasio said. “Policies on campaign finance law have to be determined with the council. And I think we have provided some important balance in the process.

“I’d like to remind people, and Dick Dadey will confirm this,” de Blasio continued, with Dadey looking on, “the toughest campaign finance law in the country was passed by the New York City Council. It was not started by a mayor. It was not started by an independent commission. It was created by the City Council.”

He went on to say, “The only way to do this right is with the City Council. It should not be done as a unilateral action by the CFB.”